The Palace of Yogyakarta

The Palace of Yogyakarta Reviews

The Sultan’s palace is home today to the Sultan ‘HAMENGKUBUWONO X’ and a visit to Yogyakarta is incomplete if you have not visited the Sultan Palace. For me this is an important agenda for to visit the Sultan’s Palace. Ye..one of the palaces that still exists to this day in the Indonesian archipelagos, Therefore for me this is my cultural heritage that persist until now. And how many times have I visited this palace…maybe already 5 times, which I never tire to see .

From where I was staying at my Jl.Sosrowijayan is only a walk of about 15 minutes, to be at the entrance of this palace. To enter I must buy tickets, the prices of which I pay for is a domestic tourists at IDR 5,000 / person plus IDR 1,000 for permission to take pictures. This means that by adding costs only IDR 1,000, we could take pictures inside the palace complex as much as we like.

On entering through the main gate, we are greeted by the friendly courtiers who had lined up neatly by gate to welcome the tourists who come in endlessly. Once inside we see laterally to right an area, that our eyes are immediately drawn too, which is the place where would be exhibition performances that are usually always there to entertain the tourists who come. But I’m not to be lucky because sadly, no performances today.

All we could see is the sets of musical instruments of Gamelan, a traditional Indonesian percussion orchestra. These are no ordinary Gamelan instruments they are Royal heirlooms, which only the best and privileged musicians are to play. Today the courtiers were only performing rituals of preservation inside the building that is call the ‘Palace gong heritage.’ Inside I looked carefully, as well as the other tourist at attention to this ritual. Also here I can see artifacts/findings that were found when reconstruction took place here some years ago…its interesting to get to know where the Sultan lives now of how they use to live here many years ago in this the house( Sultan Castle). of many Sultan’s.

Looking inside the main building of this palace in Yogyakarta, there are many Kencono (rooms). However, do not expect you can enter them as a tourist, because these rooms are still in use for today’s Sultan and his wards. You could only step into the main building of the palace where you they allow us. Neither can we just sit on the edge of the floor, we were not allowed. Because this place is the main palace of Yogyakarta, a place to hold important events for the Sultan. these are the official offices of Sultan HB X, and we must abide by the rules, So, we just simply looking at them from a distance.

We also see the royal collections, the first one we saw was the lavish ‘Coach train’ used for the king and queen which was once pull by many horses, this train has no use anymore, because of it’s old age, However, although not used it is still very well-preserved.

After that I headed to another room which contained a collection of Crystals and Ceramics. Within each space the crystals and ceramics collections are maintained by the courtiers. As the name suggests there are all sorts of objects, glassware, vases, lamps and various other earthenware ornaments, Many items are unique and interesting and very clear or shiny that look so touchable, but these items are irreplaceable and easily broken. Then we do not touch, afraid to damage and to be afraid of the Sultan’s Guards to imprison us 

Now I’m feeling my feet starting to ache, circling the palace complex is tiring. So before proceeding into the next chamber, I stopped for a moment in a place that has some benches, which look like they are prepared here for the tourists visiting Yogyakarta Palace, that when they feel tired , can rest a bit.

After my rest I Go to another collection room. This time, I went into the Batik collection. Please abide by the rules here, as you enter because, even with buying a ticket that allows you to take pictures in the palace, NO PERMISSION is allow in the BATIK collection room. So be carefully to read, what the ticket has written. Within this room space there are various batik motifs on display. We can observed, so many patterns that they have, not only Yogyakarta batik fabrics are on display, but there is are motif’s of other areas, such as Pekalongan, and Madura. Furthermore this Batik collection chamber is to a fitting end my visit inside the Sultan’s Palace as Batik is a personal favorite of mine.